


Crash and Fall

by stealthyseaborne



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Farmer!Rhett, Great Depression, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Pastor!Link, Religious Conflict, Religious Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-21 20:33:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13151532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stealthyseaborne/pseuds/stealthyseaborne
Summary: Charles is a brand new Yale graduate with secrets to keep and wrongs to right, but will meeting the mysterious Rhett McLaughlin derail his plans for redemption in the midst of North Carolina in the clutches of the Great Depression?





	Crash and Fall

**Author's Note:**

> I want to emphasize strongly that I DO NOT agree with the Baptist church's current stance on sexuality or gender at all. However, the Baptist denomination is very widespread and has a nearly constant presence in rural Southern communities in the United States so I felt that it wouldn't be unlikely for Link to have been raised Baptist or to become a Baptist preacher.

Crash- informal [no object] (of shares, a business, etc.) suddenly drop in value or fail

Midnight on October 30, 1929  
He was tired. He had known that this would be difficult. His professors had warned him that nothing they could teach him could fully prepare him for pastoral work. He didn’t think they meant that he would have to speak words of comfort to his desperate congregation after the end of the world. 

He knew logically that the world would not end, but for this rural farming community it could be. They were scared. The stock market had plummeted and they weren’t guaranteed to have anything when it blew over. His frightened parishioners had flocked to the only place they thought could comfort him. His church. He had hugged people as they cried and quoted scriptures that he thought might give them a small moment of peace. He tried. He been trying all day to resist the waves of panic running through him, but he felt them now in full force. He hands were shaking and he could feel tears ready to fall. 

He wiped his eyes as he closed the double doors of the church and walked the short distance to the parsonage. As he walked in the door, he caught a glimpse of himself in an old mirror hanging by the door. He scarcely recognized himself after three months serving in this town. He was not the same frightened young man that had arrived in this town with Rhett in toe. The months had worn him down, had filled him with a deep feeling of melancholy he could not quite manage, but he was determined he was doing what he was meant to do. He had tried hard all day, but his worst nightmare was that it wouldn’t be enough. He was just a man facing the end of the world and had nothing to offer them. What was he supposed to do?

Fall- A defeat or downfall.

June 1, 1929  
He was sweating. He wasn’t hot, but he was nervous. He could not for the life of him remain still in his seat which had earned him several glares from his fellow passengers and especially the from lady across the aisle. He didn’t blame her in the least bit because he knew that he was being a nuisance. His Baltimore-Daily newspaper had not been enough entertainment to keep his mind from wandering to unknown places that made his anxiety even worse and he was not even remotely interested in any of the books in his briefcase. The reaction of the lady across the aisle reminded him of the way his mother would scold him at the dinner table or in church for not being able to stay still. He smiled despite himself. 

His thoughts were interrupted by the porter speaking to the lady across the way.

“Excuse me, madam. Your husband is asking for you in the dining car.” 

The lady smiled warmly at the porter and left the car. The porter turned to him. 

“Can I get anything for you, sir?” he asked. 

He cleared his throat. “Do you happen to have any water? It has been quite a long ride.” 

The porter nodded and left to retrieve it for him. 

The train ride was nearly over. He would soon step off the train onto a platform in Greensboro, NC. In spite of his requests to be sent elsewhere, he had been assigned by the Southern Convention to a small congregation in Buies Creek, NC. His mother would have been thrilled to know that he would be close to Raleigh, if he had not given up on writing it after he had tried three times after not being able to find the right words. The office in Baltimore had given him a small spending stipend for the trip, a certificate stating that he was indeed the new pastor if anyone questioned his age, and a brand-new Bible. He knew that God must have a reason for his return home after all his time away. He had no other explanation for it. He knew that his immediate escape from Raleigh to Yale University after he graduated high school had hurt his parents deeply. He also knew that it hurt them more deeply with every passing year he found an excuse to not return home. They had not understood his desire to leave for Connecticut without staying to work during the summer and he hadn’t dared to explain it to them lest he slip up and reveal too much. He figured that it was to give him a chance to fix the mistakes that he had made when he was young and afraid. He hoped that he would finally be able to ease the guilt that was steadily eating at him from the inside out. He guessed that he had to go home, if he ever hoped to find peace for the things that troubled him.  
\---  
He stepped off the train into the oppressive North Carolina heat. He had forgotten the dreadful humidity that lingers in the air even in the middle of the night hours after sundown. He was looking for a man. He knew from a small letter given to him that he was to meet a man named Rhett McLaughlin, who described himself as a very tall bearded man who could not possibly be missed in a crowd. Well, there certainly was not a crowd on the platform at this time of night and he easily spotted a tall man, clearly dressed in his Sunday best and trying his hardest to blend in with his surroundings, but that wasn’t all he noticed. No, with a shiver, even from a long distance away Charles could make out his features, and he was handsome. Handsome, blond, and so very tall. The thought immediately stopped him in his tracks to take a deep breath and to pray for strength to resist the temptation of this handsome stranger. He knew if he waited too long Rhett would be suspicious so he continued walking across the platform.

“Um, you’re Mr. McLaughlin, I presume?” Charles asked.

“Oh please, call me Rhett. We’ll be getting well-acquainted on a long trip in a few hours so we might as well be friendly, Pastor Neal.” Rhett said with a laugh.  
Rhett’s calm demeanor immediately set him at ease.

“Oh well, I’m sure there’s no need for formality on a train platform in the middle of the night. You can call me Link as long as you don’t tell my mother. She was never fond of the nickname.” He said with a smile.

He knew he was in trouble when his heart leap at the sound of Rhett’s laugh on the silent train platform. He gripped his suitcase until his knuckles were white and silently prayed as he and Rhett made their way off the platform. 

Rhett glanced over at him while they walked. “I hope you don’t mind, but the town chipped in and got us a room at the hotel so we didn’t have to make the trip during the night.”

He sighed. It was rare that he met someone who made him feel small. He was 6ft tall after all, but Rhett was big. He wasn’t overweight at all, but he was tall with a frame that made himself seem frail in comparison. Even so, he could not help but notice that Rhett walked with a slight hunch. It was almost as if he wished with every step that he could be a few inches shorter. He realized he hadn’t responded to Rhett with a start when he caught Rhett looking at him expectantly. 

“Oh, they did not have to do that. I do appreciate it though. A few hours on the train is not all that fun these days it seems. I hope you didn’t have to wait too long.” Charles said quietly. 

Rhett laughed. “A live preacher is better than a dead preacher. Plus, nobody really wants to make that trip in the dark, trust me. And don’t worry about the waiting. My father sent me to sell some of our crops to the grocery store in town and I had to make a delivery anyway. So, there is no special treatment for you, Link.” Rhett said with a smirk.

They reached the hotel before he had a chance to respond and he bit back a retort to Rhett’s tease.  
Rhett talked with the man at the front desk and it was clear by their interaction that they knew each other even from his vantage point across the lobby. He couldn’t help but wonder about the source of the familiarity between the two men. It was most likely that Rhett simply charmed every person he met just as Rhett had done to him. Surely, that was all it was. It couldn’t be true that the first man he meets after stepping foot back on North Carolina soil would be like him.  
It wasn’t likely to be true so he pushed the thought away as he noticed Rhett walking back across the lobby in hopes of preserving a small portion of his nerves.  
Rhett returned a few moments later with a key and the two men climbed the stairs silently to their floor. When they finally reached their room, Rhett unlocked the door and Link walked in behind him. He sat down on the bed farthest away from the window with a grunt. When Link finally looked up Rhett was looking at him appraisingly, Charles felt unnerved enough after a few moments that he asked why Rhett was looking at him that way. 

Rhett took a deep breath and his face relaxed. “I was just looking at you for the first time in the light.” Rhett said with hesitation clear in his voice. 

His breath hitched in his throat. “What do you see, then?” he asked. 

His voice had broken at the end of the question. He cursed himself silently. Rhett’s silence from across the room seemed to last an eternity, but he couldn’t bear to break eye contact with Rhett. 

Rhett looked away at that moment and he felt like he could breathe again. 

“Perfection.“ Rhett said before he turning on his heel and leaving the room without another word. 

Charles stood up, stripped out of all of his clothes and got back into bed without bothering to unpack his things from his bag. As he stared up at the ceiling, he realized that he had gotten off to quite a poor start to attempting to fix his past mistakes, but Rhett’s words echoed louder than the doubts floating in his head. Perfection.

**Author's Note:**

> I am not sure if I will change the rating for this story because I have NO IDEA where it will go, but hopefully you enjoyed it. Please leave feedback since I am a new writing and want to improve. Thanks and don't forget to BYMB! -Seaborne


End file.
